Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Towards Sociobiogeochemistry: Critical Perspectives On Anthropogenic Alterations To Soil Nitrogen Chemistry Via U.S. Urban And Suburban Development, Christopher D. Ryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ecological impacts of changes to land use are relevant to concerns about climate change, eutrophication of waterbodies, and reductions in biodiversity. As a foundational component of ecosystem functioning, changes to soil biogeochemistry have significant effects on overall ecosystem health. With cities continuing to grow and develop in extent, the impacts of urbanization and suburbanization on soils are of particular concern. Despite a wide range of natural climatic and geologic conditions, several factors have driven similar patterns of land transformation and management across the United States. In particular, federal initiatives including the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Federal Housing Administration, …

Trees In Urban Environments: How Soil Quality Impacts Tree Performance, Saidan Qi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cities around the world are increasingly investing in reforestation and afforestation efforts to mitigate impacts from climate change and population growth. However, urban soil conditions can be unfavorable for tree growth. Street trees are widely known to suffer from poor soil quality, but there has been no comprehensive review of this topic so far. Clean soils can be transported from nonurban areas to support cities’ green projects, but this approach is not sustainable. Artificial (constructed) soils can be created from various materials and have been proposed as an alternative medium for urban tree growth, but no research has been done …

Untangling The Nature And Timescales Of Magmatic Processes Driving Eruptions At Quiescent Volcanoes: Examples From Momotombo, Nicaragua, And Cumbre Vieja, Canary Islands, Samantha Tramontano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Across all scales of human relationships (i.e. person-to-person, country-to-country, etc.), qualms can take the form of long-standing wars, quick and intense bouts, or petty exchanges. While our understanding of human behavior is ever increasing, reactions and behaviors of self and others may still come as a surprise. Expressions of disagreement can occur suddenly or following years to centuries of accumulated grievances. The solid earth is also a system that behaves (like human emotion) predictably at times and unpredictably at other times. Some volcanoes, a tangible surface expression of solid earth processes, exhibit precursory signals prior to eruption (e.g. the bulging …

Characterization Of Boreal-Arctic Vegetation Growth Phases And Active Soil Layer Dynamics In The High-Latitudes Of North America: A Study Combining Multi-Year In Situ And Satellite-Based Observations, Michael G. Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examined the seasonal freeze/thaw activity in boreal-Arctic soils and vegetation physiology in Alaska, USA and Alberta, Canada, using in situ environmental measurements and passive microwave satellite observations. The boreal-Arctic high-latitudes have been experiencing ecosystem changes more rapidly in comparison to the rest of Earth due to the presently warming climatic conditions having a magnified effect over Polar Regions. Currently, the boreal-Arctic is a carbon sink; however, recent studies indicate a shift over the next century to become a carbon source. High-latitude vegetation and cold soil dynamics are influenced by climatic shifts and are largely responsible for the regions …

A Typological And Chemical Analysis Of Roman Oil Lamps From Poggio Del Molino, Brandon Tejo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Terracotta lamps, known to the Romans as lucernae, are small, handheld, often decorated objects which provided ancient people light. To modern researchers, they serve as tools for dating stratigraphy and iconographic studies. Beyond their immediately apparent aesthetic and symbolic value, the chemical compositions of the clay of these lamps reflect their origin. This study complements archaeological typologies with chemometric analyses to describe 16 Late Republican and Imperial Roman lamps recovered from the villa at Poggio del Molino (PdM), Tuscany. These finds were recovered from the 2021 and 2022 PdM excavations. The combined approach of typology with X-ray Diffraction (XRD) …

Nutrient Dynamics And Ecosystem Development Of Urban Forests, Gisselle A. Mejía

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Urban growth and expansion are a major component of global environmental change, with impacts on climate, air and water quality, biodiversity, and human well-being. Forests embedded in urban landscapes are critical in mitigating these impacts at local, regional, and continental scales. However, assessing urban forests is difficult because cities are heterogenous in physical, chemical, biological, and social dimensions. This heterogeneity has constrained how urban forests are defined, and therefore, how they are studied. The objective of this dissertation is to determine how these biophysical and social factors drive ecological processes in urban forests and will address three outstanding challenges in …

The Interaction Of Different Primary Producers And Physical And Chemical Dynamics Of An Urban Shallow Lake, Majid Sahin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

An artificial urban shallow lake, Prospect Park Lake (PPL), is situated on a terminal moraine in Brooklyn New York, and supplied with municipal water treated with ortho-phosphates. The constant input of the phosphate nutrient is the primary source of eutrophication in the lake. The numerous pools along the water course houses various aquatic phototrophs, which influence the water quality and the state of the system, driving conditions into favoring the survival of their species. In the first half of the dissertation, the focus of the project is on analyzing how the different primary producers in different regions of PPL affect …

Evaluation Of The Potential Of Automated Sem-Eds Analysis For The Discrimination Of Inorganic Soil Particles, Anna S. Duggar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Soil, that complex mixture of minerals, organic particles, chemicals, and anthropogenic materials, is ubiquitous and easily transferred, which gives it forensic relevance. Forensic soil analysis has traditionally included the identification and comparison of both organic and inorganic components, the inorganic portion being most commonly examined by light microscopy and other instrumental techniques. Predominantly, the inorganic materials in soil are naturally-occurring minerals, contributed as grains from the surrounding bedrock, which gives a soil its regional character. That parent material then undergoes physical, chemical, and anthropogenic changes producing wide geographic variation within a single region. This variation forms the basis for potential …

Carbon And Nitrogen Dynamics Of A Lagoon Salt Marsh In Davenport, California, Mark D. Gormley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Wetlands are complex environments that play a critical role in regulating the global biogeochemical cycle of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Wetlands are critical contributors to global climate change and atmospheric chemistry since they store as much as 33% of the world’s soil organic carbon (SOC), release more than 20% of the atmospheric methane (CH₄), and produce nitrous oxide (N₂O), an extremely potent greenhouse gas (GHG). Despite the enormous radiative forcing potential of carbon dioxide (CO₂), CH₄ and N₂O derived from wetlands, uncertainties over the rates of C sequestration and GHG …

Frozen In Time: A Numerical Modeling Approach To The Study Of Ice Bearing Planetesimals Through Carbonaceous Chondrites, Jasmine M. Bayron

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Icy planetesimals are significant objects of study for meteoritics, planetary science, and astrobiology due to their connections to the origins of life and liquid water on Earth. An existing closed system aqueous alteration model was adapted to simulate several scenarios involving early Solar System geologic processes occurring in an icy planetesimal interior. The model described in this work has been developed not only to test the validity of constraints currently thought to apply to CM1 parent bodies, but to directly compare the implications of these constraints for the isotopic composition and the modal mineralogy of carbonaceous chondrites. Isotopic ratios of …

Microstructural Characteristics Of Deformed Quartz Under Non-Steady-State Conditions, Hamidreza Soleymani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Because of the long timescale of many geological processes (millions of years), it has been traditionally assumed that the existing forces acting on the rocks at deep crustal levels are in equilibrium (i.e., steady-state). An alternative assumption, however, suggests that rocks in the lower crust and upper mantle are continuously evolving and exchanging energy at various time scales. Under the latter assumption (i.e., non-steady-state), certain geologic systems may never attain equilibrium regardless of the length and the time scale of operating geologic events. These two “endpoint” assumptions suggest there is a wide range of geologically reasonable conditions under which rocks …

Tidal Wetland Inundation And Vegetation Phenology From Space: A Synthesis Of Approaches For Characterizing Ecological Status And Inundation Dynamics In Tidal Wetlands With Remote Sensing Observations, Brian T. Lamb

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on the monitoring and characterization of tidal marshes using remote sensing-based approaches. Chapter 1 introduces the topics of wetland ecology and remote sensing. Chapters 2-4 are the main research chapters of the dissertation covering the topics of tidal marsh mapping, tidal marsh vegetation characterization, and assessment of tidal marsh inundation patterns. Chapter 5 summarizes the preceding chapters and highlights future research directions.

The primary research objective of Chapter 2 is the mapping and study of tidal marshes of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. This chapter also features a thematic focus on the evaluation of various forms of …

Characterizing Surface Water From Space With Microwave Remote Sensing: Advancing Conventional And Emerging Approaches, Katherine Jensen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The extent and dynamics of land surface inundation vary tremendously across the globe. Accurate spatial representation of terrestrial surface water is of critical importance for management and conservation of biodiversity and other ecosystem services associated with freshwater. Furthermore, surface water maps representing dynamic characteristics of inundated areas are also valuable for the development of wetland inventories and to assess the role of wetlands as major natural sources of methane to the atmosphere. Despite the importance of these environments in global processes and to current and future climate, the extent and dynamics of global wetlands remain poorly characterized and modeled.

The …

Provenance Of Tin In The Late Bronze Age Balkans: Preparation Of Cassiterite For Sn Isotope Analysis And The Probabilistic And Spatial Analysis Of Sn Isotopes, Andrea H. Mason

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The sources of tin for the European Bronze Age (2200-1050 B.C.E.) have remained undetermined. Isotopic analysis has shown promise as a means of providing “fingerprints” of bronze artifacts that can be matched to their parental ore sources. This project has accomplished the following: (1) further tested and defined a method for the preparation of cassiterite for isotopic analysis, and (2), determined the provenance of tin used for metallurgy in the central Balkans during the later Bronze Age based on Sn isotopic compositions of bronze artifacts and local tin ores.

Two distinct methods have been applied in recent isotopic studies of …

Lead And Arsenic Contamination In Urban Soils In New York City, Anna Paltseva

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examined total and bioaccessible soil lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) concentrations and their accumulation in commonly grown garden vegetables in New York City (NYC) metropolitan area. Direct oral ingestion of contaminated soil and consumption of plants that have accumulated Pb or As from underlying soil are known human exposure pathways in urban garden soils that often contain elevated levels of contaminants. The research had four components: (1) assessment of the variability of bioaccessible Pb in NYC urban soils; (2) field experiments to evaluate Pb stabilization and As mobilization by phosphate and alternative amendments; (3) development of a new …

The Role Of Fluids In Ore Remobilization At The Balmat Zinc Deposit, Ny, Peter D. Matt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Shear zone-hosted orebodies at the Balmat, NY, zinc deposit were remobilized at the kilometer scale during amphibolite facies regional metamorphism ca. 1180 Ma. Despite there being little evidence for interaction of hydrous fluids and ores during deformation, such translocation distances are considered unlikely without the assistance of fluids. Two independent research methods, SEM-EDS micro-petrography and zinc isotope geochemical analysis, demonstrate that anatectic sulfide and silicate melts were generated during metamorphism. Micro-petrography of the Fowler ore body reveals low melting-temperature micro-inclusions of sulfosalt and sulfide assemblages which occur predominantly in Qtz-Py and Kfs-Py domains that cross-cut peak metamorphic assemblages. These results …

The Water/Energy Nexus: Climate, Consumption And Ecosystem Services, Hildegaard D. Link

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Water and energy are drivers of living systems. This work provides an assessment of the Water Energy Nexus in the United States, comparing the well-watered north-east and the arid west. Electric grid systems are most stressed on hot summer afternoons. Grid stress can lead to cascading failures of electricity, water and wastewater treatment systems. (Zimmerman, 2017) Water for power generation and/or water supply depend on ecosystem services. The ecosystem services and resource trade-offs embedded in provision of a watt of power and an ounce of potable water, however, have yet to be comprehensively enumerated nor have the cost relationships been …

Oldowan Tool Behaviors Through Time On The Homa Peninsula, Kenya, Emma M. Finestone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The adaptive significance of tool use to genus Homo is a central theme in human origins. However, what we know from the early Oldowan sites suggests that persistent technology may have begun as an opportunistic behavior with minimal investment, rather than a habitual and widespread adaptive revolution. This dissertation seeks to investigate investment in Oldowan tool production on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya, considering raw material selection, transport, and lithic production at two newly discovered Oldowan localities: Nyayanga (ca. 2.6 Ma) and Sare River (ca. 1.7 Ma).

The first section of this dissertation outlines a method that enables the comparison of …

Abrupt Climate Transitions, Christine J. Ramadhin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Earth’s climate system displays a long history of nonlinear abrupt transitions which have resulted in significant ecosystem disruption and are recorded in the geologic data. Today significant anthropogenic changes are occurring in many Earth systems that seem to be pushing these toward critical thresholds. Thus, increasing the possibility of a transition to alternative states which can have unfavorable consequences. Therefore, it becomes compelling to forecast when and how these transitions will occur so that decision-makers can devise appropriate strategies to avoid or cope with the effects of a changeover to a new alternative state. However, due to the highly …

Investigation Of Biogeochemical Mechanisms Of Greenhouse Gas Production In The Urban Hudson River Estuary, Brian Alan Brigham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal megacities deposit significant amounts of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and other pollutants into surrounding waters. These inputs, including wastewater and surface water runoff, may affect estuarine and adjacent wetland biogeochemical cycles, microbial production and ultimately greenhouse gas (GHG) efflux. In many megacities pollutant loading is typically greatest after periods of precipitation when the volume of wastewater and storm water runoff exceeds local sanitation capacity, resulting in the discharge of raw sewage into adjacent waters. These combined sewage overflow (CSO) events have received considerable attention primarily due to their potential impact on human health and eutrophication. However, whether these events …

Quantifying The Effects Of Wind Regimes And Temperature On Surface Melt Over The Antarctic Peninsula (1982–2017) Through Modeling, Remote Sensing And In-Situ Data, Rajashree Datta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Surface melting over the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) plays a crucial role for the stability of ice shelves and dynamics of grounded ice, hence modulating the mass balance in a region of the world which is particularly sensitive to increasing surface temperatures. Understanding the processes that drive melting using surface energy and mass balance models is fundamental to improving estimates of current and future surface melting and associated sea level rise through ice-shelf collapse. This is even more important in view of the specific challenges presented by how circulation patterns over the topographically-complex Antarctic Peninsula, especially foehn winds, impact surface melt. …

Regulation Of Dissolved Arsenic Using Zero-Valent Iron With Gypsum And Sulfate Reducing Bacteria: Laboratory Microcosm And Column Studies, Ying Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Bench scale microcosm incubation was first conducted in two stages to examine the removal of arsenic (As) by zero-valent iron (ZVI) in the presence of sulfate reducing bacteria, gypsum as well as organic substrates under anaerobic condition. About 98% of dissolved As was removed from solution within 20 days with concurrent decrease of dissolved sulfate and growth of bacterial population. Mineralogy analysis using SEM-EDS found the formation of iron sulfide and Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis indicates that some As is associated with pyrite. The main iron corrosion product was found as ferrihydrite with traces of lepidocrocite. Sequential leaching shows …

Evidence Of The 1762 Arakan And Prior Earthquakes In The Northern Sunda Subduction, Dhiman Ranjan Mondal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this dissertation is to understand the seismic hazard associated with Arakan segment of the northern Sunda subduction along SE Bangladesh. In order to do that, it is necessary to document geologic evidence for the 1762 Arakan earthquake and prior events, to help estimate the recurrence interval (repeat time) for that earthquake. Historical records described that the 1762 earthquake caused extensive damage along the Arakan segment of the Sunda subduction system. But the geologic evidence for the earthquake farther north is necessary to better understand its associated seismic hazard to the densely populated nation of Bangladesh. This dissertation …

Aluminum-26: A Canonized Cosmochemical Conundrum, John Anton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study focuses on the challenges associated with the historical development of the interpretative role of ²⁶Al as both a thermodynamic contributor to planetesimal formation processes and an acutely precise chronometer of protoplanetary disk events. Conventional thought asserts that ²⁶Mg concentrations can occur as isotopic excesses in meteorites and represent the daughter product of ²⁶Al, a radioactive form of aluminum (t_½ = ~0.73 ka). The greatest ²⁶Mg concentrations generally occur in calcium aluminum inclusions (CAIs), meteoric constituents considered among the oldest known materials in the Solar System whose formation appear to predate the less refractory …

The Formation Of Fine-Grained Chondrule Rims In Unequilibrated Ordinary Chondrites, John Bigolski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Fine-grained rims are ubiquitous, non-igneous, features that completely or partially envelope the majority of chondrules within the least equilibrated of the unequilibrated ordinary chondrites (UOCs). A detailed examination of such rims in 4 UOC samples less than petrologic type 3.2 was conducted in order to 1) characterize the relative distribution of rims within chondrite samples, 2) inspect differences between fine-grained rims and adjacent matrix material, 3) petrologically analyze the rims and their relationships with chondrule cores, 4) characterize an ungrouped UOC, Northwest Africa 5717, 5) conduct a microanalytical investigation of rim / matrix boundaries to discern relative chronologies of fine-grained …

Impact Of Urbanization On Temperature Variation In Big Cities: Measuring Health Risk While Targeting Vulnerable Population, Maryam E. Karimi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Densely populated cities are experiencing Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects and localized hotspots. Cities, such as New York can form heat islands all year round. This is primarily due to land surface modifications, radiative trapping in urban canyons and lack of cooling through evapotranspiration caused by displaced trees and vegetation. UHI refers to an increase in air and surface temperature in cities compared to surrounding suburban and rural areas. Large scale environmental forcing can cause subdivisions of UHI throughout a city. The combined of environmental forcing effects lead to the formation of hot pockets within the cities at micro-scale. The …

Guidance Index For Shallow Landslide Hazard Analysis, Cheila Cullen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rainfall-induced landslides are one of the most frequent hazards on slanted terrains. They lead to considerable economic losses and fatalities worldwide. Intense storms with high-intensity and long-duration rainfall have high potential to trigger rapidly moving soil masses due to changes in pore water pressure and seepage forces. Nevertheless, regardless of the intensity-duration of the rainfall, shallow landslides are influenced by antecedent soil moisture conditions. To the present day, no system exists that dynamically interrelates these two factors.

This work establishes a relationship between antecedent soil moisture and rainfall expressed in the form of a Shallow Landslide Index (SLI) at 1km …

Lessons From The Past: Unfolding The Dynamics Among Climate, Balkan Landscapes, And Humans Over The Past Millennium, Charuta J. Kulkarni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The primary objective of this doctoral dissertation is to reconstruct the environmental history of the Central Balkans (Serbia) over the past millennium utilizing biological proxies (pollen, spores, and charcoal), geochemical signals through X-ray fluorescence (XRF), statistical analyses, and atomic mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C chronology. This dissertation establishes the first chronological framework for vegetation-landscape changes in Serbia and discusses the role of humans and climate as underlying processes.

Chapter 1 discusses the background and the nature of the research problem followed by the extensive literature review on the topic of the Holocene climate and paleoecology. The state of Holocene paleoecology …

Climate, Ecology, And Human Evolution During The Plio-Pleistocene, Scott Adam Blumenthal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A major goal of paleoanthropology is to identify the selective pressures associated with hominin biological and behavioral evolution, yet establishing cause-effect relationships between climate, ecology, and human evolution remains problematic. This dissertation seeks to investigate hominin paleoecology in eastern Africa by reconstructing aspects of climate and ecology using stable isotope analysis.

The first part of this dissertation is focused on the ecology of primates and hominins. Modern tropical African ecosystems provide a useful model for understanding the ecological correlates of isotopic variation in the fossil record, and living primates provide a useful model for understanding the ecological significance of isotopic …

Effects Of Aerosol On Cloud Water Path: Statistical Method A Potential Source For Divergence In Observation-Based Correlative Studies, Ousmane Sy Savane

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Divergence between correlative studies involving aerosol and cloud proxies has been thought of in the past as the results of varying physical mechanisms. Although models have supported the existence of variable correlations, from an observational standpoint it is difficult to attribute with confidence the correlations to specific physical mechanisms. We explore a methodology to assess the correlation between cloud water path (CWP) and aerosol optical depth (AOD) using MODIS Aqua retrieved aerosol and cloud properties for regions dominated by different types of aerosol: Non Absorbing Aerosol Dominated Region over land (NAADR_Land), Non Absorbing Aerosol Dominated Region over Ocean (NAADR_Marine), Absorbing …